Back in the Air!

I am back in the air! Took a nice flight this Saturday at a local flight park - Ellenville Flight Park - concentrated on a good take off and landing and when had that went home happy! It's good to be back in the air!

Sunday March 25th, NY Times, Travel Section

Sunday March 25th, NY Times (or Saturday home delivery) - Page 15, Travel Section - Marko Georgiev photo of yours truly! - in the monthly "Why We Travel" section. The only unfortunate omission is the lack of mention of Vertigo Paragliding Club - those "closest friends" mentioned in the caption below. Will just have to work harder to get into the news paper again!

Doing great!

Just a quick update - I am doing great, everything is healing according to plan, no pain meds or nothing and can't wait for the new flying season in another month or so. Still not supposed to lift anything heavy for another month but otherwise - as good as new. Cheers all. P.S. Just to clarify - the only damage was T10 - all the other stuff was a "movement artifact" on a poor quality initial CT scan.

Some more details...

First of all, thanks for all the well wishes I got locally and via email from Macedonia to Valadares to New York - I can´t tell you how much it all meant to me - especially when I was not sure what exactly was happening. Will Silva showed up on his red buggy, others offered place to stay, help with phone calls and papers, you name it! Amazing really.

Here are some more details on the accident. The day started really late due to stronger than usual winds and an unusual wind direction. Cloud base was very low - so everyone patiently waited. Finally the competition window opened around 1 pm. I was not in the comp so stayed behind and assisted some launches and just stayed out of the way of the competitors. Finally, after about 50 other gliders were safely on their way I set up for launch. Many pilots had a difficult launch because of the side of the mountain that had to be used - somewhat of a cliff launch. I had a smooth and easy take off waiting it out just enough, built up good altitude easily and had about a dozen gliders join me in the air soon after. Getting about 300 meters over and ending up at the cloudbase it was time to move away and take advantage of some XC possibilities. I was working intermittently light lift with mixed in ridge lift in places and in less than an hour made it with relative ease as far as 17 km and then hit, what likely was, a major sink/rotor. My 600 meters of altitude quickly disappeared as I was going about 4.5 meters per second down. Had to use the speed bar to make it over the crest of a near hill to, what appeared, a safe landing zone.

Somewhere in all the excitement I lost some of the perfect clarity to keep myself safe, and instead of choosing to land on a slope that was clearly clear I decided to fly down to the foot of the hill that appeared to a be a fine, albeit a dry landing spot. Now, I did think that amidst the grass the dry spot may be more likely to release a thermal but choose the option because the place looked open, flat and comfortably away from any obstacles. Mind you, there was the 4.5 m/s second to take into account - I was coming down fast! Just about 50 meters off the ground I noticed power lines rimming the field and was as quickly as I could scanning the field for any lines a farmer could have pulled across the field (not at all an unusual occurrence here). I came in with some minor oscillations at good speed to the field that was lifting and was concentrating on not running out of space if the lift was stronger than expected. Still, knowing the safety of speed on landing in turbulence I kept my hands high but, and, this was critically different than my usual landing approach, stayed in my seat. SO, when the wing lurched forward with just a meter or two remaining off the ground I made the decision to skid in on my butt. Only this was a very bad decision indeed. Sitting back in the harness I could not flair hard and when the tuft of grass revealed a hidden ditch in the middle of my flight path I was completely out of options. My legs missed the edge just so and the bottom of my harness that contained my reclining body came in perfect square contact with very hard and immobile ledge of the ditch. From 30 km/h to 0 in 0 seconds. The pain was immediate and so severe that my wind was knocked out of me for about a minute before I was able to take a breath. Local kids immediately surrounded me, and then may be a minute later 2 other PG pilots where on the scene. Franky and Pedro helped to keep me comfortable, immediately radioed to the mountain with the emergency post there, ambulance was there in 15-20 minutes, local EMTs were professional and quickly gave me pain meds - Xray, and CT scan showed initial trauma and the day later MRI revealed the damage to T6, T7 and T10 but all were stable and I was released from the hospital next day. Marko and Joka kept a close eye on me throughout the stay, staying in my room over night bringing food and generally humoring me thru the whole thing. Marko headed home first with all my gear and Joka joined him next day.

The conditions continued to be sketchy for the next 2 days and 2 more pilots ended up with back injuries. It goes to show that no matter how usually forgiving a site is one should never become complacent at assessing the risks and deciding just how much risk to assume for the ultimate joy of free flight.

I will try to settle my hospital bills tomorrow and head back to New York. Till next flying adventure, Sander out.

Hmm, back injuries are NOT fun.

The understatement of the week. But I am back and will tell the story in detail - will have time, you know. The bottom line - no flying for 2 months. The upside - no foreseeable problems promised at this time - just rest and give time for the spine to heal. Seems like there is minor damage to T6, T7, and a broken but stable T10. All these will get another lookover once I am back in New York - trying to get back there by Thursday. Essentially missed out on 1 week of flying and made lots of new friends at the local hospital! Everyone has been incredibly kind and helpful. If a bad thing had to happen - this was certainly the best case scenario!

Valadares, take two.

Back in Valadares, or take two. 2007 Brazil.

Who could have thought! Valadares seems to be back to it´s well forgotten glory! Today´s flights were long, fun and did I mention long? But here is the funnest part - the results. The estimated distances - pending GPS log uploads - Slave ~55 km, Sander ~40 km, Joka and Marko ~ 37 km. Yep. All these in correct order! Did I mention that this was Slave´s FIRST cross country flight? Oh, well, let me tell you - this was Slave´s FIRST cross country flight. Yep. Not just in Brazil, but altogether! Smiley, you taught him well! David and Ken had shorter flights today.

So, the day started simply enough - with a taxi ride up to the top - but the top is quite different these days - it is the 2007 Brazil Open Championship - check out in pictures - dozens of gliders on launch are just as tightly packed when they are up in the air in a gaggle - luckily today´s task took them around our path but it was quite a site to see about 60 gliders glittering in the distance, pushing out, low and fast to make the elusive goal.

As to our flight - we all were doing quite well. I finally payed attention to my own thinking about shedding some weight off the gear - and getting rid of about 4-5 lbs of non-essential stuff seemingly payed off - I was able to stay in and use the same thermals as Marko and Joka with greater ease. But the real surprise came today with Slave´s flying - he simply would not give up. More than once he was so low that landing was the only option to all observing - yet he persevered - and his insistence payed dividends quite handsomely - of 4 of our little gaggle he has gone the longest, even overflying the competition goal!

I had a little adventure after the landing to lighten up the day - I landed about a half of a kilometer away from the road and was hiking back. Saw a kid with two bicycles that he was struggling to get to the road with one falling over the other. I asked if I can help by riding one of these - shortening my walk in turn! He said ¨sure, but *((&()&¨ - well, I should have looked that up. What *((&()& meant was - ¨but there are no breaks!¨ Let´s just say, I was very happy to see the end of the road going uphill - because I would have continued rolling a very long time with extra 25 kg on my back!

Hitched a ride back and for just extra 10 reals same guy drove me to the top - so I got another flight in, did some acro and landed to join the rest of very happy pilots on the ground! Flying the way it was meant to be! Oh, and check out updated Floripa post - added 38 new photos with comments. Some are quite funny, if I may say so myself!

ooooof

SO. We are back in Valadares. I wish I had the energy to describe this in detail but let´s just summarize our 3,000.00 km forray to Florianopolis and back as this - 5 paraglider pilots, 5 days, 5 busses, 2 Kombi VW van rentals, 2 planes, ~$400, ~46 hours of travel time - do I need to say more? All of that culminating with a 5 and a half hour race to make the track from Bel Horizonte to the top of Ibituruna and fly down - and yet, somehow, it all made sense! I will put pictures and details in the next day or two. I promise.

Florianopolis 5 day forray. Brazil 2007.

And, by the way, Florianopolis is quite beautiful and I can´t wait to be back - according to Fabio the best flying/relaxing season is in January... Will just have to pencil that it, would´t we? Oh, and that reminds me - I still have that not-yet-redeemed ticket for an adventure vacation!

You are not going to believe it...

Yep. We are on the move once again. Sitting and waiting for the weather to clear yielded just one result - complete desperation. After another heroic effort (and a few drinks) the decision became clear. We are going back to GV. Yep. You read it right. We are cutting our losses, abandoning the idea of becoming surfers and fitting in the crowd in Floripa and going to our adopted home in Brazil - Governador Valadares. The weather has not been spectacular in GV either but according to our scattered sources there has been 2 days of moderately good flying for 1 day of rain. Florianopolis turned out to be a beautiful place and I certainly hope to return here with Yuliya in a very near future but this time it is time to go.

Though, I must say, having a house at our disposal for the last 3 days was fun, David and Ken proved to be invaluable resources each contributing some incredible skills to the affair - David with cooking and sense of direction. Ken with driving and... other things!

Anyway, time to go pack and marvel at the crazy Brazilians driving around the huge carnival floats - the little town in Barra de Lagoa is giving us a unique, unrefined view of the carnival, that´s for sure!

Still bad weather - looking for water sports!

Nothing new. Looking for water sports to occupy our minds.

And we are back!

Ok. First of all - the weather is playing a nasty trick on us! It seems to be following us around the country!!! The next three days here are promising to be rain and thunderstorms - whereas in Valadares... all is good!!! Unbelievable. But what would you expect after being on the bus for 33 hours(!) to get through 1.600,00 km to get to the surfing mekka of Brazil - the island of Florianopolis. I do admit - it is beautiful here. The beaches are all white sand, the towns are very tourist friendly and our VW minibus - well - that's just priceless! We found a house for rent in a town of Barro de Lagoa for all of 150 reals per day - which is not bad at all. All we really need is some flying and all would be perfect.

By the way, the pictures are coming in due time - and we have plenty of them - but I simply forgot the card reader at the hotel... Oops.

Today we also hooked up and were welcomed by some local pilots - of O.V.N.I. - Organizacao de Voadores do Norte da Ilha - we happily hung out on the beach, shared some drinks and played around in a very impressive surf. Great folks to come do some tandem flights with when you are in Brazil!

Week three - Floripa!

Anyhow. As much as Valadares is a very much a town avoided by the usual tourist crowd and the only gringos are the paraglider pilots - Floripa is a very different scene. The sign on the door of the computer room I am using are in Portuguese, English and Hebrew. Surfers are all over. And probably most amusing - I had to spend 5 minutes trying to convince the lady that is renting the house to us that I am NOT in fact a "paulista"- i.e. a native of Sao Paulo - but a real gringo! I guess this country starting to rub off on me too. Well, the other thing is - Brazil is as much a melting pot as US is - but here the racial stratification is a bit different. For one - further North you get - such as GV and Brasilia - the most African descendants you encounter - the further South - where we are right now - the more of German and Italian descent Brazilians you happen to see. SO, being a gringo it is far easier to blend it down South - and my hair is getting just unruly enough!

Another thing Floripa is known for - a great influx of folks for the time of Carnival! So - the atmosphere is extremely festive and loud, crowds are in the streets in force and we are getting and entirely different perspective on Brazil! So, all in all, I am not really complaining!

On that note - it is time to go join the crowds!

Rain leaves us no choice...

We are all hard at work on our exit strategy. The first prize goes to Florianopolis -a beautiful island on the South of Brazil... The bad news - it will take over 26 hours on 3 buses to get there. BUT it is still better than waiting in the rain for things to change... in 2 weeks or so! So, hopefully the next posts will be off the road!

Good news - making new contacts on Fabio´s lead with pilots in Florianopolis - is our first lead - his hotel is full for Carnival - but, Zé Maria the owner of CHALES DO CANTO who is a HG pilot, http://www.voolivre-sc.com.br let me know that flying has been spectacular, new records being set as we speak and overall sounds like a great guy - so off we go!!!

Some pictures of the past 24 hours including Ciao pics for Steve and Carol heading to Rio de Janeiro to join festive crowds for Carnival!!!

Brazil - week two...

Rain, rain, rain again...

Doing pretty much nothing except wondering aimlessly around, watching TV, reading, and eating. I think it is time to start looking for better forecasts around and hop around the country a bit. Will keep you all posted!

Here is some "stock" footage from couple of days ago to keep you entertained.

• justacro.com guys goofing around.
• Joka flying around Ibituruna.

The Paraglider Pilot Assemly Instructions.

Paraglider Pilot Assembly Instructions

Please visit this photo gallery for pictures and the commentary. Today´s topic - ¨Trying to understand what makes a paraglider pilot... a paraglider pilot!¨

Day off. Rain.

Well, not a whole lot going on today except sleeping, eating, working on a blog and running small errands. Uploaded the first week worth of photos with some commentary - enjoy!

The first week...

Apologies!

Sorry about the messed up pictures in the previous 2 posts - I will fix them as soon as I am back from dinner!

Three flights - where quality was a bit lacking - quantaty made it up amply!

But let me retrace this day backwards - somehow it managed to become progressively better culminating by us stuffing our faces at a traditional brazilian grilling place, a churascaria - in this case called Spettus. I don´t remember myself be this ridiculously stuffed in a very long time. Within 2 minutes of us walking in we were virtually assaulted by skewers of deliciously grilled meat - beef, pork, chicken - what have you! Desert - grilled cheese and grilled pineapple. They take this grilling thing quite seriously, I must say. Here is how we looked at the conclusion of our venerable feast - essentially anywhere between ecstatic to comatose.

But preceding this we went flying. The last flight of the day was with Joka and Gabor. Gabor brought a video camera and we flew in wonderfully lifting air of the evening light that followed a day full of overdevelopment, rains and disappointing attempts at distance flying. The fun of flying close by, talking, videotaping, taking pictures and doing a bit of fun maneuvering that included wingtip touching and some inadvertent collapses (on my part) as the wing control was sacrificed to getting the best shot! Then, with a bit of spiraling and a SAT - we were back in the city to enjoy the rest of the evening.

Steve and Carol surprise themselves!

Joka and me gliding to the next thermal.
Joka and me realizing that there is no next thermal and the only thing ahead is the big blue hole...

Steve and Carol surprise themselves! Yes, really. They flew 20 k today - a first real cross country flight for both of them! (Carol may correct me on it later...) Well, anyway, they did incredibly well on this difficult day. Too bad that I watched a good chunk of their flight... from the ground as they flew overhead!!! Ok, so the stats - Marko - 40 k, same spot where he landed yesterday. Joka - still don´t know as he was not back when I left to the computer place, but the estimate of 35 k has been floated around by witnesses of his landing out in the bush... Steve and Carol - 20 k, and me... well, I suck.

Sunk out at the same place as 2 days ago, just about 15 k from take off. Avoided mud this time and fought to the last minute. As a matter of fact spent full 20 minutes scraping by at the altitude of 99-120 meters! At some point of extreme desperation I was trying to figure out if there is anything in my load I don´t absolutely need and a thought of ¨do I really need that flight deck?¨crossed my mind. For those who don´t know - that would have amounted of dropping about a 2 pound bag!... with about $1000 worth of electronics in it... Reason, and gravity, prevailed and I finally landed... to once again witness Marko come to the same spot, same altitude and sky out! Unbelievable. Well, somewhat believable as it is happening with incredible consistency but also - Marko is much lighter on his glider, where as I am flying with some extra weight (comparatively to the weight range of the glider.) Now, in most conditions this difference would be negligible but with the consistently light conditions of Valadares it does add up to some incredible saves.

So the first thing I did once getting back to the hotel was get rid of every single non-essential item in my kit - here and there it added up to about 3-4 lb/2 kg - will see what will happen tomorrow!

Now, to the beginning of our day - this will have to be a photo journal kinda thing...

The day started normally enough, with our usual gathering spot near the landing zone. Except, today was a Saturday, so the local pilots were out in force...

The day in pictures...

The usual gathering spot - just as the bus arrives. Howard presiding.


Look carefully at this gas station. Now look carefully at the cars.


NOW, look really carefully! Only in Brazil...


Pal says - ¨don´t touch those breaks!!!¨ Good thing we are going UP the mountain...


The prayer to the wind gods - ¨please, or please, make me... normal.¨ Sorry Carol, no such luck!



Yep, that´s a Brazilian TV cameraman. Instant notoriety.



Joka and Carol in their full, symbiotic glory!

Another excellent day!

Stats so far - Joka 3h45min triangulation flight (go and come back) of about 20 km, Steve nice thermalling flight in the earlier part of this slow starting day. Carol managed to squeeze out 2 flights doing about 5 km on the first and 10 km on the second flight - ALL on her own! No one pestering her on the radio (which probably helped!). I did better today too - did essentially twice the distance of yesterday, about 30km, 26km on a straight line from take off. Slow going though - good thing Marko was just slightly ahead of me making me slow down just enough to keep going for over 2 hours! Well, and as to Marko - he kept flying!!! We both came in within about 100 m off the ground, he was at most 10-20 meters above... and then, next thing I know - I am landing and he is scraping back up to the cloudbase! All in a ¨blue¨thermal - no cloud overhead to guide his path, always quite unnerving. I had one of those today too - you feel kinda naked with no puffy white thing overhead! Be back with pictures after dinner - we are heading to get some ¨mukeka¨ a very tasty soup concoction - great for after flying rehydration/resaltification of weary paraglider pilots! Oh, and I have to tell you about the Vertigo communication - but once again - gotta run!

Ok, so the update - Marko went nearly 60 km!!! Wow. I am so jealous. Oh, well, had to make up for that by going and eating lots of tasty soup while Marko was half dead asleep from exhaustion. Tomorrow is another day - let´s hope that I´ll stick to doubling my distance!

First XC (Cross Country) flights!

Finally, the real GV day that we have been waiting for! Approximate tally - Marko 45km, Joka 35km, myself - measly 15km. I suck. But there is always another day, hopefully I´d do better next time.

Not to say that 15k was not well earned and fun today either. The day was very light and one had to really work it to stay up and out. The key on a day like today is to stay high and move cautiously. NOT what I did. I have forgotten some of the XC skills given my recent fascination with acro.

At some point I got as low as 200 meters off the ground, radioed to Marko and Joka that I am about to land... only to manage to climb out to the cloudbase of approximately 1,000 meters up. Too bad that I spent so much energy and patience for this safe I did not seem to have much of it left and squandered all that altitude on an impossible glide down to 100m, then back to 450m (after once again announcing that I am landing!) and finally landed in a bog!!! Well, it did not LOOK like a bog, it looked nice and welcoming except when my feet touched the... not so solid ground and sunk to my ankles in mud. You see the picture here - well, the mountain far in the background is where we take off... 15 km away!

Carol had two great flights today, one a bit longer than other but on the second she was all on her own and did great! I am very proud of her. Steve was a bit of a sacrificial lamb today and did not fly - his ankle got a bit bruised yesterday and he stayed on the ground today. He is doing much better already and I am sure he will be happily airborne tomorrow! Will be back after dinner to post some pictures!

Ok, I am back, but the picture is more fun than I expected... it has been some years since I´ve done any Capoeira, but today was the day to remember the old tricks! Marko went to photograph the performance and I was translating - and just ¨happened¨ to mention that I used to do Capoeira - well, picture speaks for itself!

Weather improving...

Well, we are continuing with a warm up program of sorts. Today was the first day in a while the club was able to fill up and send a bus about two thirds full up the mountain. This, of course means that the weather is improving and a bunch of us are dreaming of long distance flights. Too bad these hopes went unrealized... Strong winds at the top kept the thermals from properly building up and flying was either into strong head winds to the foot of the mountain or a few thermal hops and then, the lucky ones, would make it to the city and land close enough to their hotel to grab a beer and hope the better day tomorrow! None-the-less, Pal and Gabor of justacro.com showed off with some ridge soaring tricks and all flew.



As a matter of fact, some flew more than once and Steve and Carol got to fly in pretty strong conditions successfully demonstrating what they are made of! (we are still not quite sure, but it was something squishy). Joka and me, both made it to the city LZ with some room to spare, Marko was trying to milk the uncertain thermals and ended up across the river. No worries, still got a decent flight and was in time to meet us for late lunch in town!

After a shower and a little while reading the book I headed to my usual evening digs at the computer library where Carol and Steve joined me for a little while, to work on the blog and doing what I can from here to help the wedding preparations along. Just wish Yulka could take time off and hang out here with me... Next trip!

First day of flying - Valadares, Brazil trip.

So, today we are finally airborne. Not that this was the most spectacular flying any of us have ever done but given the simple fact that we are flying in our shorts... well, can´t beat that, can you? My last flight in New York a month ago the cold was so bad that each appendage required at least a mitten and a heating pack!

Marko and Carol flew. Marcus also joined us in the air. My flight was one of the longer ones today but only added up to 35 minutes - for those of you who know Valadares it is not a whole lot - and still - whole lot better than sitting on the ground!

And what good flying day could pass without some friendly local contact - after landing we got treated for some coffee and was followed up by some EXTRA fresh milk - i.e. still warm after milking. Marko passed on that but I simply HAD to indulge. Last time I tried that I was about ten years old in the Carpathian mountains in Russia, hanging out with my grandfather! Funny, what a vivid memory that was - I even remember going for a hike and trying to figure out bird calls with him...

The forecast for tomorrow is promising - so still hope to brag about the great distances not just time in the air. Having some computer problems, so hope to add more images to this post later...

Rio De Janeiro

So, after the usually painful 9 hour flight we have arrived. The transfer in Sao Paulo was shockingly easy... and that had it´s very expected consequences. Our luggage has fallen behind. Initial dismay was substituted by a general comatose state and before we knew it (just an hour and a half!) our luggage decided to join us for the rest of the trip! Unfortunately the damage was done and that resulted in us thinking that it is a good idea to ¨pump¨ some music through intricately connected portable speakers... Don´t ask.

Anyhow, after getting some coffee and cheese bread (¨pão de queijo¨) we were off to the bus station. After handing in our giant paragliding bags and getting ticket for that same evening´s overnight bus to Governador Valadares, in the state of Minas Gerais it was time to explore Rio!

Absolutely exhausted we hopped onto a city bus and headed to the place that no self-respecting tourist can stay away from - Copacabana beach! (¨Praia de Copacabana¨). The cool part was seeing the less than spectacular parts of the city, hanging out with the locals and all that for about a $1 a piece! The only problem - no where to change (see Carol´s heroic efforts at changing her swim suit she bought right on the beach - the rest of us... well, we improvised!)

Now, here is the weird thing about Brazil - anyone can find the place they feel at home at. Just check out what Marko and Joka found 5 minutes into being in the city...

Then, a few coconuts later, a cold Skol and a quick swim in the Atlantic ocean - we felt a whole lot better! Almost ready for an even more painful then the 9 hour flight, 8 hour bus ride to Valadares! But before that we managed a walk from Copacabana to Lagoa, enjoying spectacular cityscape and getting ourselves properly tired to sleep thru the ride!

But before, as usual, the first contact to make in Rio was getting in touch with my cousins - the Unikowsky family - Debbie, Zilmar and Jessica were in Rio, and Liz, as per usual was exploring the world. The view of the city from their window was just the icing on the cake of a spectacular day!

Brazil, Brazil...

We are on our way!!! Despite our best efforts we all managed to make it to the airport on time. Steve and Carol gave it a go by train, Marko and myself settled for the old fashioned car and cab hopping. In all fairness, Carol´s and Steve´s trip was faster and $8 cheaper but our trip included a meal cooked by Yuliya and then followed by my mom´s borsch and a shot of Rakija. SO, we win!

For those of you that have not met my honey yet :-), her name is Yuliya and she is a cardiologist in NJ. We are taking our first trip together - heading to Puerto Rico for a week. She refuses to fly a tandem Hang Glider so far - says that she is happy to see me enjoying high altitudes. But she is happier from the ground... Oh, well, one day we'll get her properly drunk or something...

Acro Course in Brazil!

http://apco.ru/brazil - check this out. The post is in Russian, let me know if you need a translation. You can also use an automated service like http://babelfish.altavista.com/ - but the gist is - ACRO clinic in Brasil, last week of february, all inclusive for 800 euros (towing, instruction, food, stay.) I will be translating from English to Russian. Main instruction will be in English.

Marko in Ellenville

Ahh, just look at this sky... Who could have thought that we'd stay there for hours! Freezing random parts off :-)

Ellenville worked!

Flying Ellenville November 2006

To everyone's surprise Ellenville worked extremely well this sunless weekend! The sky was nearly constantly clogged with grey clouds, patches of sun would quickly come and go and despite all this everyone enjoyed hours of soaring, thermalling(!) and bits of acro - sporadically performed by yours truly. Now, let me explain the acro bit - all was done with at least 500 meters of ground clearance and was limited to wingovers, SATs and asymetric spirals. The latter two maneuvers were used, by in large for the sake of rapid and safe descent in occasionally trashy air. And wingovers... well, they are wingovers! How can you NOT want to do them! I am still quite convinced that acro over ground is a bad idea but when given plenty of altitude and limited to maneuvers one has had a chance to practice over water dozens of times... Anyhow, I felt comfortable with my limited selection and did everything far from other aircraft to ensure the largest margin of safety.

All that said - 5 flights, 6 hours, 2 mini XC - one over the crest of the hill (finally!) landing just past Pine Bush - a mere 11.5 km SE from launch and the other about 8 km NW of launch. Though these distance ANYWHERE ELSE sound minuscule for Ellenville paragliding this ain't bad. Mind you, we are taking off into a narrow valley without usable landing zones for 1-2 kilometer stretches in some directions off a 400 meter hill so - don't complain :-) The funny part of the little XC - destination - Federal Prison. While flying over the main prison building saw a large baseball field just next to the prison. Luckily on the second pass I noticed the prison guard towers and the wall that was not visible from the particular vantage point off the top of the ridge. Smart application of a speed bar and a quick run back to the mountain saved me MUCH of explaining I would have had to do! Landed in a small airport nearby, waited for a HG pilot Stan to land and with his wife's rapid retrieval made it back to the mountain for another hour of flying. Great, though unexpected flying weekend!

Flying Planet Parapente, acrobatico

another nice acro video!

Spin (Double Edge Films)

Just love this one. I guess the moral of the story is... don't meddle? :-)

paraglider free style

Incredible dune flying... Check out http://wagas-festival.com/index_eng.html for more information.

A great collection of links

http://www.circlinghawk.com/links.html - links to all things paragliding/flying.

Home.

Enough said.

Heading home...

So, today was the last day of fun and flying for us in Oludeniz. Forecast was not promising but proved to be completely wrong and at 10 am the acro truck was heading up the hill again! The flight today was probably one of my favorites - was able not only start and hold a respectable heli but stopped and reversed direction, then did some REAL wingovers. Wow. Nothing like seeing your own shadow on the bottom of your glider with the sun just past noon. I was WELL over the glider riding and finally well controlling any wingtip collapses with no problem.

Blue Gorilla Tour, October 28

Got a little low over the water, though which made me a bit extra cautious for the second flight - so I decided to just enjoy the view, watch Mike Kung and Mendo take a turn at "combat kiting" on top of Babadag in quite strong winds and take some really nice pictures (to come when I am back in New York).

Back in Istanbul, Blue Gorilla Tour, October 29 2006

After saying out good byes at the hotel to the Vertigo crew headed back to Istanbul. Ramadhan is over so the city greeted us relatively coldly, with empty streets and a 70 lira kebab... that should teach us to as for the prices ahead of time! Back to New York at 7 am... Till next time.

...blown out today...

Oh, well. Can't have it all all the time... Strong winds (up to 90 km/h) on Babadag today stopped essentially all the flying outside of a few stragglers. Did take one ride to the lower launch with Mendo, Maria and a few other pilots but to no avail. Winds switched soon after out take off and Mike Kung radioed to us from the landing that winds are way too strong to maintain safe flight and landing. We packed up after a bit of a wait and on the way back started to have real fun. One of the Romanian pilots found a pomegranate tree and we robbed it silly. Then we spent the ride down getting sprayed by the brilliantly red juice and making the truck a sticky mess. Just as we got to the beach another announcement over the PA requested the acro pilots to go back up... SO, the hardest decision in flying is when NOT to fly. This was definitely one of those times.

Blue Gorilla Tour, October 27

I decided to stay back when about a half of the acro show contingent headed up. After an hour long wait at the beach while sipping out beer and taking pictures they finally announced that the conditions on top were not safe and no one was able to launch... Just one more day left but the forecast may not prove friendly enough. No worries, this has been quite an adventure already. Flying tomorrow would be a bonus.

Having fun and doing acro!

Incredible (as a good friend puts it)... CB, wish you were here! Anyhow, the party is just getting started. After a day of acro maneuvers the small contingent of acro pilots voted to move on to free style acro show. I am still getting amazing amount of feedback on my flying from all - pilots in the group include Pál and Gabor<>www.justacro.com, Mahony of Turkey and a few others whos full names I am still to get.

Tonight we had a fun communal dinner with all the Acro pilots (some of the best in the world!) and Vertigo International contingent.

Blue Gorilla Tour, Turkey, October 26

Today was also quite memorable for two things - my continued efforts to learn the Helico from oral instruction initially resulted in an iinadvertentpractice of severe cravat recovery but on my third run after additional feedback from Mendo I finally got it! A controlled Helicopter! Will keep practicing to make it consistent... Then there was a brief opening ceremony with the acro pilots standing in for pictures - will do my best to get that picture to post.

Anyhow, must sleep and get ready for the free style acro tomorrow!

Festival is on!

Wow, things are getting really fun. 7th Babadag International Airgames are on! As per usual, the better the flying, the fewer the pictures but this time for a different (good) reason. Last night as I was registering for the festival I decided to check the "competing"/acro box. As one of the clerks put it - "do you best, have fun and if not... well we got the rescue boats!"

Blue Gorilla Tour, 25th of October

Started the morning by joining the acro pilot briefing and ended up sitting around a very small table with Felix Rodriguez of the famous SAT team, Mendo Veljanovski of Macedonia and a few others that I will add once I get the correct spellings/countries etc. To my utter surprise the number of acro competitors was under 10 - all I have to do is qualify! Now, that might be easier said then done...

The compulsory program by consensus of all present - as the number of competitors was low the decision was made to let the pilots make the flying as fun, safe and exciting to watch as possible. Felix assisted the judges with finer points of judging by going first and pointing the intricacies of newer maneuvers and transitions to the judges. SO, the compulsory program included the following in that order:

Helicopter
Wingovers
Asymmetric Spiral
Asymmetric SAT
Dynamic Stall
Tailslide

On the ride up one of the Turkish pilots noticed a cheat-sheet pasted to my flight suit and asked to consult with it. I had to point out to him that I have excluded Helicopter because I don't know how to perform that maneuver. At which point Felix said that I should try anyway, especially if I know all the other elements - i.e. tailslide, full stall etc. that can make the entry and recovery safe. So, there I am on a truck up to Babadag with Felix and Mendo teaching me how to do a heli! Does not come any funner than this! (for those not quite as excited - compare this experience with getting pointers from Andre Agassi on your serve :-))

Oh, I did forgot to mention, earlier in the day we had a practice run during which I got uncomfortably close to seriously messing up my full stall entry. Nothing like seeing ALL the lines of your glider go slack and violently falling under the glider, with no way to control the surge. Ouch.

SO. I also mentioned to the competitors that I have recently acquired http://www.psychiatry.aero and would really like to hear their opinions and ways of handling risk. This developed into several very interesting conversations. Needless to say, as I have suspected before - only one out of ten was joking around when conversation turn to the subject of risk and safety. Mendo probably put it best - "I am not brave. I fear death. That fear keeps me safe... ...if fear is not working something is wrong with that pilot... ...familiarity with the real risks and continuous practicing of the maneuvers prepares you to handle emergencies and decreases fear. Once familiarity is gone fear should and does return." Though a few pilots in the group have done other risky/adventurous sports not all have pushed themselves to the same limits in those endeavours... nonetheless most handle the issue in a similar way - practice, watch others and learn from each maneuver - good or bad to learn how to push the envelope in minuscule incremental and safe steps to get better as a group.

My qualifying run was fun. I did not get to do a heli - did manage to get about 3/4 of a turn with simple and clean exit - which will hopefully give me confidence to keep practicing and get this down. The rest of the maneuvers went smoothly with wingovers getting over the 90 degree angle with no collapses... and landing to a sizable crowd with Vertigo International cheering at the top of their lungs was definitely fun! I will know if I qualified by tomorrow noon - and will keep you posted!

Meanwhile, Othmar, Steve and Marko are doing 2 hours thermalling flights above the stunning scenery - but I am sure they will tell you all about it themselves! Another thing - great set of useful/interesting paragliding links http://www.circlinghawk.com/links.html

The better the flying, the less energy left to write...

Blue Gorilla Tour, October 24

Great day today, got another 3 flights off Babadag, finally getting the hang of wingovers and working them into my little bit of an acro routine. SO, today's programme went as follows - started with a negative spin, (oh, and for explanation of all the terminology below go to Acromania website) then to full stall to tail slide to left SAT with a coconut spin (Gorilla was happy) to right SAT to aggressive wingovers to asymetric spiral to spiral to wingovers to spot landing! Very respectable for an amateur.

As you can see clouds still rolled in with force but we were able to sneak right around them getting to launch just in time, waiting out a bit of a shower with some Turkish tea and olives and going up again and again. The competition is starting tomorrow, so let the fun begin! ...off to get the early registration done.

Oh, and to our pregnant friends - we love you and thinking of you and everybody wishes you were here! And Carol - yes they are! and that's why we love them!

Finally!!!

Ok, lack of lengthy and numerous posts can mean only one thing - we finally started flying like we were supposed to! 3 flıghts today, new frıends and new pıctures. Wıll have to keep thıs message somewhat short because I am usıng a Turkısh keyboard and some letters and punctuatıon are dıfferent - ever so slıghtly but enough to really screw wıth my touch typıng...

Blue Gorrila Tour, Turkey, October 23

Were up at 8 and on the shuttle headıng up the mountain at 9. Took the first nıce flıght of the day from the stunnıng 6500 ft takeoff on top of the famed Babadag mountaın. After chattıng Steve up on the radıo to get hım to do some nıce spırals proceeded to warm up wıth seriously big wingovers. ; After gettıng a few collapses and apprecıatıng fınally realizing what a real wingover is supposed to look like started gaining a wee bit of conrol, winding up some nice spirals and generally feeling out the wing after the 2 months in New York with nearly no flying at all.


After a landing right near the camera man and ending up with my mug on the usual evening screening at the Cloud 9 was ready to head back up the hill... only to realize that my wing had a weard rip on it! The rip looked like someone stepped on it. With three sharp toenails. After a bit of investigative reasoning we figured it out - Clifford! Yes, the last time the wing saw any real action was at Fred's and Daniel's wedding in New York some month and a half ago when their dog Clifford ran into my wing and apparently left quite a mark! SO, now a bit of patch work and 10 Turkish lira later I was ready to go again.

This time the top was getting clouded in and we decided to take the shuttle to the lower launch, only (!) 3000 ft. ...and even that came with it's share of clouds... but after a short wait and hanging out with some visiting Russian pilots we were in business again. One of the pilots was a girl by the name of Yulia - when I add pictures you'd be able to appreciate this to the fullest extent. In short - she is an amputee with her left arm going just past her elbow. She uses a custom made prosthesis with a carabiner on the end of it to hold on to the steering toggle. Incredible. Watching her make a perfect take off and landing in pretty difficult conditions is quite a treat. She quickly made friends with our Blue Gorrila (once again, will add pictures soon!)

Some of the old faces Seçıl - the photographer from the last year's AirGames, Mendo - the Macedonian acro guru and a few others made their appearences.

Third flight was probably the funnest of the bunch - we drove up the mountain on the last truck going up, nearly the full complement of club Vertigo - driving thru massive clouds at 2000 ft and finally coming above the cloud base just a few hundred feet below launch. But that's where the situation was a bit more challenging. At any given moment, for nearly an hour and a half we could either see where we are going thru the clouds below... or have the right wind to go. Finally after the wait and running from one side of the hill to the other in the first window off I go! Incredible to fly out in the day... and be over the town in the night. The usual 30-40 minute flight lasted just enough to enjoy a beautiful sunset from the sky and land... only to realize that nearly everyone else was able to launch after me... So, now things got really interesting as the sky progressed to be darker and darker and several of the students finally made it to the dark beach with lights of the beach restaurants serving as the landing strip. Bobo and Joka were last. Well, Bobo had a bit of an interesting landing - with his feet touching ground just about 10 ft into the surf. His wing, reserve and him got soaked but he was quickly out of the water.

Joka on the other hand seemed in no hurry to land. His yellow and white glider was lit up by the town lights and cruised thru the starry sky - incredible. Finally all on the ground we had to go wash Bobo's glider and after a few false starts we finally accomplished the task... stuffing the wing in Marko's bathtub!

Ok, it's time to go sleep - the truck up is at 8 am tomorrow!

No so good... but getting better!

Today was a strange day. Did not get enough sleep, staying up late, trying to write something for the blog sorting out pictures and waiting to one of our crew to get in - which did not happen till 230 am. ALL that would not have mattered much if not for a really crappy day today. We started off by sitting and having a communal breakfast - which was fun and jolly as always, talking and planning the day of flying ahead.

Blue Gorrila Tour, Turkey, October 22

THEN shit hit the fan. Let's just say - the problem with having really close friends - you really care about them. I may expand on this later...

On top of this, flying did not pan out with a futile $20 ride up and down the mountain... Then we found out that 3 new radios we bought are of the wrong kind and then I managed to burn out the charger to my radio...

The forecast for flying for tomorrow is also much better! Time to go to the beach!

Blue Gorilla Tour, Turkey 2006

Well, let’s see. Started our trip to Oludeniz, Turkey on the Friday night from NY. Remarkably, we were on schedule for this first leg of our trip. After the long and annoying 9 hours on the plane we arrived to the city of Istanbul. Heading right to the city from the airport during a 7 hour layover got to wonder the streets, drink tea and take in some sights… but most of all fought incredible desire to fall asleep. The good news – the trip has acquired the official mascot – and is now known (or at least I change my mind) as the Blue Gorilla Tour, Turkey 2006.

Blue Gorilla Tour, Turkey 2006

But by far the most significant even of the day is the reunion of the Club Vertigo International! Many a drink shared and a bear hugs exchanged. Kadri, the organizer of the Airgames, stopped by to say hello and everyone (other than Graham and Zigi that are both still in transit) went to sleep. Forecast is not stellar for tomorrow but I am sure we will still get to fly.